Trying to get a cellular modem USB device to work in DOS is just not going to work, it's far too new. Your USB dongle needs to go into a router that supports it, then the router can connect via acable to the DOS PC. The curve ball though is that the network card will also need to work in DOS and P4 era network card might not have DOS drivers, you would need to
Hi! Networking on DOS is possible, but not with today's 0815 technology.
For example, 2G cellular phones used to have an 9600 baud modem in early 90s.
Travelling laptop users in the 90s then could retrieve e-mails via CompuServe on DOS or Windows or OS/2 (or on a PowerBook/System 7).
If an ethernet card is available, then an ethernet to WiFi bridge can be used.
WiFi repeater with ethernet ports also often have that feature, too.
They can work as an oversized WiFi dongle, basically.
That's been often used to get older video game consoles with ethernet port online from within the home WiFi network.
But that's not all. It's possible to use an ISA to PCMCIA adapter in order to use modern PCMCIA/PC Card expansion cards in old DOS PCs.
That way, modern PCMCIA/PC Card or Cardbus cards for WiFi can be physically used.
Drivers are another matter, of course. The card services and other drivers are needed, likely.
Similarily, there were Compact Flash card adapters with WiFi.
They were used in PDAs in early 2000s. They had a CF slot on the top.
HP Jornada 548, for example.
SD flash cards that can be accessed via WiFi do exist, too.
They were intended for digital cameras, so pictures can be retrieved with the card still left in the camera.
There are many weird things out there! 😆
At the end of the day though, internet in DOS was pretty much about accessing BBS systems so hopefully that's what you are interested in
Depends, internet or www or gopher basically started on Unix Workstations and IBM PCs at universities.
FTP, Telnet and Links/Lynx etc were available in text-mode.
(Macintosh computers were used early on, too, I guess.)
Then, there are also graphical web browsers for DOS such as Minuet, Arachne, Dillo.
The latest versions of PC/GEOS (-a graphical DOS extension-) do have a modern web browser, Skipper, latter WebMagick.
The BBS / mailbox scene was popular among computer freaks and home users.
They started out in the late 1970s with their TRS-80, Apple II or Commodore computers.
More tech savy users owned a serious VT-100 terminal and an high-end acoustic coupler or an early smart modem.
Something that public libraries and universities would own.
Edit: Commercial or professional users of the time did call X.25 PADs instead of dialing a mailbox directly.
In the 90s, ISDN was popular in the mailbox scene in my home country.
Windows 3.1 played some role by then, since it supported CAPI drivers for ISDN cards.
Edit: By this time, mailbox systems with ANSI art were quit popular, too.
Edited.
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